Tonight should be fun. Jaime Garcia (7 IP, 0 R in his last outing) is on the mound for the Cardinals, and he’s had success (2.30 ERA) against the Phillies in his career. In addition, the Phillies lineup looks one from Spring Training. It has the makings of yet another poor offensive game for the Phils.

Roy Halladay will start for the Phillies, and he looked like Roy Halladay in his last start. Still, his season ERA is still through the roof, and we need more than just one start to know he’s really out of his funk, or if it was just a result of the Marlins offense. He’s got pretty good numbers against the Cardinals in his career (2.57 ERA), however.

Injury updates:Ryan Howard is day-to-day with a sore groin, and Carlos Ruiz was hit in the wrist by a pitch in an extended Spring Training game.

When the Phillies are in St. Louis [or hosting the Cardinals], we always go for the smooth, crisp, cheap taste of Busch beer. Tonight, we’ll go light for you, to ease you back into it. They don’t call it “easy drinkin’ for nothin’. This is an underage drinkers dream out in the sticks. Many a time you’ll find empty cans scattered in a wooded area from the local punks. It’s still $15 for a 30 pack, if I’m not mistaken. But really, Busch won’t kill your taste buds, either. It’s not the worst light beer ever invented, but it’s also far from the best. –By Pat

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40 Comments

Ken Bland

April 19, 2013 at 7:06 pm

This oughta be interesting. As in who knows. Cards are favored, Garcia’s a good pitcher, sometimes great, but not a great road pitcher (understated). Doc? Well, can’t say I’, optimistic against this lineup, but if he’s gonna turn it around to whatever degree, it won’t happen when expected. 2K’s, and a lot of breaking pitches, the year’s norm. Might not work against the Cards. 7.5 U/O, I’ll guess we go over. Less thsan Buffalo 27-8 over The Cuse last night, but over’s my guess.

6 hits in 12 at bats, 4-7 RISP. Not too shabby. If you have a half decent team, which you would hope or think the Phils do, as oppoised to some years where it’s a safe assumption they do, it’s about cycles. Boy, a new cycle, as opposed to a blip in a trip through hell would be nice.

(I repost this because blind baseless pessimism is the single worst attitude a person can have and deserves as much ridicule and disgust as all of us can muster. There is no room for pessimism on this planet.)

The idea that Howard does better in blowouts has been debunked — if you’d like to see the data again let me know. Not sure why you keep repeating stuff like this — Howard has enough issues that you shouldn’t really have to make up new ones.

I’m gonna have fun with you whether you talk about him or not. Might as well keep yappin.

I’ll say this about Freddy. I like him, and feel he’s a purposeful player. And he’ll earn a chance to play regularly sometime, and it could be that he should now. That said, iot’s also possible that some of his good play is due to being used in selective spots. Whether he’d be as good consistently at this point isn’t a certainty.

And llok at the results of them, which isn’t necessarily common. Started a huge 2 out rally, and the other was my favorite play in baseball, the leadoff walk, which they parlayed.

I don’t know what to tell you about 4 straight walkless games. Even against hot, or good pitchers, that’s ridiculous. I know being a fan of the walk, you’d have rather seen Yuni walk than hiot a grand slam the other night, which is your unique style, but the walk truly has a place in an offensive game.

@Jonathan, thanks for that write up!!! You totally wrote on the negative and BAM!! 8 runs so far!
Really hope the rain holds up. I’m in Allentown right now and it’s storming, so we know that the Iron Pigs are post poned.

It’s considered “official” Mikey, but not “complete” until the umps officially call the game. If it doesn’t end by about 9:30 the rain should start and probably not stop for a while if the radar future thingy on the weather channel site is right. So they probably won’t call it right away, but maybe around 11 they will. BTW- Never bet on the weatherman.

Breakout night for the offensively impaired. Phils are rollin,’ and the Tampa club has now scored 8 off the A’s, including a nice first inning against very good Brett Anderson. Now whether Tampa can sustain, THAT is more of a question than the somewhat questionable Phils. But there probably coming out of their cycle, too, or will if tonight’s a blip.

Somebody’s ERA is down to 5.91 now. And perhaps building base. Pretty good club to keep building a base against. And if you think the Phils offense is bad, his next start is against the Burgh. But ya can’t take things for granted, but that’s a good club to keep building against.

Anxious to see what Doc does this inning. In the past, this is where he’d turn it up, and he did that V the Fish. Big part of the Card lineup. Personally, I feel pretty good about maintaining hios control over them here.